Black-throated Green Warbler

[Bill Dix]

From Mount Desert Island, ME a few weeks ago. The song of this species resounded throughout the Maine Woods on my recent visit. C&C appreciated.

D7000, 700mm, ISO 800, 1/1000s @ f/7.1 manual, fill @ -1/7, tripod, audio

[Bruce Spell]

Bill, beautiful colors in this warbler. The BG enhances them nicely too. I like the singing pose and the perch is interesting but simple enough to not be overpowering. What do you think about a sliver off the right and top?

[Alan Murphy]

Nice signing pose. A bit tight near the virtual tail. I'm seeing a greenish cast on the whites.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Hey Bill,

I was also going to mention the color cast on the breast feathers (if they are supposed to be white, that is).

Otherwise, nice singing pose and great light - helping to bring out some of that detail.

Miguel

[gail bisson]

I will echo the comments above. I think it is the reflection of the green pine needles that are tinting the tummy feathers.
A wonderful clean look at this warbler.I like where you placed him in the frame.Very hard to do so well done,
Gail

[Diane Miller]

This is a wonderful image!! That's "canyon light" on the breast feathers -- colored by light off the green foliage. I'm curious what everyone would do about it. If you globally "neutralize" the whole image to make them white, you'll have a magenta cast everywhere else. Would you do a local color correction?

[Bill Dix]

Thanks all. Gail and Diane, you beat me to the punch. You'll note that the upper white highlights (wing bars) don't show much green cast where they are not influenced by the foliage. It would be easy enough to color-correct only the "white" breast, but why would I do that if it is illustrating the natural lighting including the reflected foliage color? (Sibley, BTW, makes particular note of the yellow wash on breast and vent of this species.) I, too, am curious what others might say about color correction.

Sibley also shows a rather short tail on this bird, but I possibly could have left a little more room. I do wish the tail were showing.

[Diane Miller]

I wonder if a bit more detail might be found in the breast? It seems a bit flat, even if the feathers there are fine. Maybe a local dose of Nik's Detail Extractor or Structure? But maybe you tried that.

[David Salem]

Nice singing pose of this beautiful little warbler. Techs look great and love the feather detail. Nice smooth BG too. Well done

[Grace Scalzo]

I think that some of the yellows on the head are lacking in detail and I would prefer a looser composition with more of the pine included. That being said, it's a terrific capture and will shine with just a few tweaks. We truly are "nit" picking here.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks everyone. Not for the first time, I've changed my mind, thanks to your collective input. I've made some minor tweaks which I do believe are an improvement: adjusted the color slider 5 points toward magenta on the bird and perch (tried it on the bg as well, but didn't like the resulting bg color); an additional 5 points toward magenta on the belly and vent; 3% Nik DE and 2% increase in brightness in the same area; 2% DE on the yellows in the head, with a slight additional selective sharpening in the supercilium area; and slight reduction of the highlights in the same area. I couldn't do anything to make the tail miraculously appear, and I didn't go back to the master file to adjust the crop. The color adjustment did result in the loss of some of the reflected green on the belly, thus it may be less realistic (but then, so was the fill flash), but perhaps it makes for a more pleasing image. Any further comments greatly appreciated.

[gail bisson]

The repost improves this already fine image. The DE really made a difference in the face and belly.
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Nice singing pose, the repost took care most of the color cast. I still would like the have the background a bit brighter, as it is hard to see the beak against it right now.
Nice image, Bill.